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When I turned on the TV to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday night, I expected one of the most hard-fought, down-and-dirty, amazing match-ups of all time. The Philadelphia Eagles, normally a team that I despise, was now the team I really wanted to win. More accurately, I didn’t want the Eagles to win; I wanted the Chiefs to lose. The Chiefs were going for their 3rd Super Bowl victory in a row, and I didn’t want to see Mahomes happy anymore, so it was either that or the Eagles, and I chose the latter.
Little did I know, however, that what was supposed to be a very even match-up that should’ve had me on the edge of my seat until the timer hit 0, was actually going to be a divisive slaughter by the Eagles.
The first quarter wasn’t anything too special. Both teams were feeling each other out, and when the score at the end of the first quarter read 7-0 in favor of the Eagles, I thought I would need to watch every second of the game to make sure I didn’t miss anything. But from this point onward, the entire game was just all Eagles. I don’t even need to retell the story of what happened in those quarters, the game was just that dominant by the Eagles. At the end of the fourth quarter the Chiefs did kind of make my heart skip a beat or two when they scored 16 points in the last 3 minutes of the game, but the Eagles were able to retrieve the onside kick from the Chiefs to win the game. The final score of the game was 40-22, but it really should’ve just been 70-0, because that’s what it felt like.
When Kendrick Lamar appeared on stage, I thought he was gonna perform Not Like Us for 20 minutes. To my surprise, he actually performed some of his other songs, and his performance overall was really solid. I don’t listen to a ton of rap, so it’s difficult for me to know what words Kendrick is speaking when he is rapping at Mach 4, but I know that many of his supporters believed it was very good, so I’ll probably just agree with them. Obviously the main thing that people were talking about was Kendrick calling out Drake in Not Like Us in front of hundreds of thousands of people. What compelled me most about his performance, however, was how the show was actually a stellar work of art by Kendrick and the dancers who rallied behind him. For one, the most obvious part of the way the show was structured was that each stage represented a PlayStation button, implying that life is like a video game. Likewise, at the end of his performance, lights that were given to the audience spelled out the words “Game Over”. Another is how he wore a chain necklace with a lowercase A, aiding Not Like Us because of that one line that I can’t type because it would probably get me suspended. But the ones that shocked me personally were the numerous representations of America in the performance. Kendrick is an avid activist for liberal views, and so it was inevitable that, with Donald Trump watching in the audience, he was going to do something to push for his views. What was done was that the dancers, all African Americans, made out the shape of the American flag with their different colored hoodies. Then, they all looked down, as if something was on their backs. This was meant to represent how America was built on the backs of slaves, which in and of itself is very creative. But with the same group, the actors split the American flag in half with Kendrick in the middle, showing how America is divided in its political views. This was a genius stunt by Kendrick and his directors in my opinion. No matter what your political views are, you can’t deny that this is a very creative and bold move by Kendrick Lamar, in a time where America is in political turmoil.
Other highlights were the memes; there were a ton of good ones, the most notable of them being the one where Kendrick Lamar looked into the camera during his performance and said the line “Hey Drake,” beginning the section of his song dissing the Canadian rapper. Other good ones I saw were Mahomes sad faces when the Chiefs were getting destroyed, the Chiefs bench all looking depressed, the bucket of Gatorade being dumped on the coach of the Eagles 3 minutes before the game ended, Eagles fans doing vandalism in the streets of Philly, and obviously, the referees letting the Chiefs get away with things.
This year’s Super Bowl was by far one of the most surprising in recent memory, and while it was a little boring to see the Chiefs getting buried into the ground, it was absolutely worth it.
